Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (sometimes shortened to Jimmy Neutron) is a 2001 American computer-animated comic science fiction film produced by ParamountToons Studios, Nickelodeon Movies, O Entertainment, and DNA Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by creator John A. Davis and written by Davis and producer Steve Oedekerk, with voice talents by Debi Derryberry, Patrick Stewart, Martin Short, Rob Paulsen, and Jeffrey Garcia. The precursor to the TV show The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which followed shortly after, Jimmy Neutron follows the title character, a schoolboy with super-genius powers who must save all of the parents of the world from a race of egg-like aliens known as the Yolkians. The idea for Jimmy Neutron was first created by Davis in the 1980s, in which he wrote a script for a short film titled Runaway Rocketboy and starring a prototype character for Jimmy named Johnny Quasar. After coming across the abandoned script several years later, Davis decided that it would be a good idea to revisit it and retool it as a computer animated short and potential TV series. A 40-second demo was animated using LightWave 3D and gained popularity at the 1995 SIGGRAPH convention where it was shown off, grabbing the attention of Oedekerk and leading DNA Productions to develop an extended TV Pilot. After a successful pitch to Nickelodeon, a 13-minute-long TV episode was developed, and Nickelodeon, impressed with both the character and the 3D technology, raised the possibility making both a TV series and a full-length feature film. Davis, in turn, suggested that the film be made first, so that the development team could create the assets at theatrical quality and reuse them in the TV series. Production officially began in early 2000, and was completed in roughly 24 months, with DNA Productions considerably raising its staff count and expanding its studio space. Animation was done entirely using commercial software, including Lightwave and project:messiah. It was Paramount's first computer-animated film, as well as the first Nicktoon to be computer-animated. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was released on December 21, 2001. Backed by a strong pre-release campaign, the film was a box office success, grossing $103 million worldwide. It was nominated for the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001, ultimately losing to Shrek; it was the only animated Nickelodeon film to ever be nominated in that category until Rango (2011). The film's success led to a spin-off television series called The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which premiered on July 20, 2002, and ended on November 25, 2006. Another spin-off series called Planet Sheen was produced, focusing on Jimmy's friend Sheen Estevez. This series premiered on October 2, 2010, and ended on February 15, 2013. Paramount and Nickelodeon would later follow this formula with Barnyard in 2006 and Wonder Park in 2019. Plot James Isaac "Jimmy" Neutron is an extremely intelligent young boy who goes to elementary school in the fictional city of Retroville. Alongside his robotic dog, Goddard, he spends much of his time building complex inventions with the hopes of further advancing science but is hampered by the protectiveness of his parents and the tendency of his inventions to malfunction, like his new shrink ray that causes his teacher Ms. Fowl to become the size of an ant without anyone noticing. One day, Jimmy is attempting to launch a communications satellite made from his family's toaster into outer space after receiving a garbled radio signal from what he believes may be extraterrestrial life. This irks his mother, who scolds him for trying to communicate with strangers. After school, Jimmy and his friends, Carl and Sheen, spot a poster for the grand opening of an amusement park called "Retroland." However, Jimmy's parents refuse to let him go because it is a school night, and he gets grounded for causing a fire with one of his inventions. Meanwhile, Jimmy's communications satellite is picked up near the planet Yolkus, home to an alien race called the Yolkians. King Goobot V and his assistant, Ooblar, watch a pre-recorded message from Jimmy, featuring him introducing himself and describing life on Earth, with Goobot gleefully declaring "the search is over". Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen subsequently choose to sneak out and visit the theme park on the advice of their popular classmate named Nick Dean. As the three kids are at the amusement park, the Yolkians kidnap all the parents in the city, leaving fake notes on the refrigerators in the kitchens to tell the kids that they have gone to Florida for an "extended vacation". Coincidentally, Carl spots a shooting star (actually a Yolkian ship), so he, Jimmy and Sheen wish for no more parental control so they can have fun all the time. The next morning, the kids discover the parents have all disappeared and celebrate for the whole day, eating tons of junk food and doing fun stuff such as jumping on the bed and furniture, running up the down escalator in the shopping mall, and water skiing in the elementary school hall, to the chagrin of a tiny Ms. Fowl who also must battle a worm from her apple with a toothpick. However, the following day, all the children quickly begin to miss their parents after getting themselves hurt or sick during the celebrating. After hearing a message from his parents that Goddard had recorded while posing as Jimmy when he snuck out, Jimmy becomes suspicious of the fact that his parents said that they would see him in the morning despite them supposedly knowing they wouldn't be there. After discovering the abductions, he rallies the city's other children to build rocket ships from the Retroland amusement park rides to travel to Yolkus and get their parents back. After stopping on an asteroid for a safe place to sleep, the kids longingly recall what their parents did every night at bedtime to comfort them. Upon arrival, they are captured by Goobot, who tells them that the parents are to be sacrificed to their goddess, Poultra. He shows the kids Jimmy's message video, thanking him for helping them find a suitable sacrifice for their ritual, before having the children locked up in the dungeon, while Goddard is taken to a laboratory to be dismantled. With Jimmy feeling guilty over the fact that his actions led to the Yolkans abducting the parents in the first place, his classmate and rival neighbor named Cindy Vortex convinces him to buck up and think of an escape plan. After breaking out with the help of Goddard, the children manage to stop the parents from being sacrificed to Poultra, a giant space monster that resembles a chicken. Everyone escapes aboard a Yolkian ship, but Goobot follows them at the head of a Yolkian fleet. With the exception of Goobot's ship, all of the Yolkian ships are destroyed when Jimmy baits them into flying too close to Yolkus' sun. Goaded into a confrontation with Goobot when the aliens repeatedly make fun of his short stature, Jimmy and Goddard successfully use the shrink ray this time to grow to the size of a planet and blow Goobot's ship into an asteroid. Goobot and Ooblar survive the explosion, and Goobot vows revenge as the humans escape. Jimmy and the rest of the kids reconcile with their parents and head back home. Sometime later, Jimmy and Carl are having breakfasts of eggs in an egg cup when Jimmy's parents drink one of his experiments (that causes significant belching), mistaking it for a can of soda, and they all laugh together while Goddard is seen outside flying to chase a bird. In the mid-credits scene Ms. Fowl, having tamed the apple worm and named it Mr. Wiggles, rides him towards the cafeteria. Cast * Debi Derryberry as Jimmy Neutron * Patrick Stewart as King Goobot V * Carolyn Lawrence as Cindy Vortex * Rob Paulsen as Carl Wheezer and Mr. and Mrs. Wheezer * Jeffrey Garcia as Sheen Estevez * Crystal Scales as Libby Folfax * Martin Short as Ooblar * Frank Welker as Goddard and Poultra * Candi Milo as Nick Dean and Britney/PJ * Megan Cavanagh as Judy Neutron, VOX and Mrs. Vortex * Mark DeCarlo as Hugh Neutron/Pilot/Arena Guard/Mr. Vortex * Carlos Alazraqui as Mr. Estevez * Kimberly Brooks as Zachery/Reporter/Angie * Andrea Martin as Ms. Winfred Fowl * Billy West as Bobby's Twin Brother/Butch/Old Man Johnson/Robobarber ** West also did various other voices, according to the film's closing credits. * Bob Goen and Mary Hart as Yokian newscasters * Dee Bradley Baker as Norad Officer * Greg Eagles as Mr. Folfax * David L. Lander as Yokian Guard/Gus * Jim Cummings as Ultra Lord/Mission Control/General Bob * Keith Alcorn as Bobby/Control Yokian Production Development The idea for a series about a boy with super-genius powers was first conceived in the 1980s by John A. Davis, who scripted and storyboarded a short narrative titled Runaway Rocketboy, centering around a character named Johnny Quasar (inspired by a facetious nickname that his Summer co-workers had coined for him in his youth who builds a rocket ship and runs away from his parents. Davis stated in an episode of the Nickelodeon Animation Podcast that he initially wrote the concept with the intention of creating it as a live-action film with special effects and matte shots, even going so far as to apply to receive a grant in order to fund the project, but found that getting such an investment was difficult since the film wasn't educational or informative. The idea lay dormant for several years until Davis came across the abandoned script while in the process of moving. Around the same time, Davis' Dallas-based studio, DNA Productions, had just began experimenting with the use of computer animation after obtaining copies of LightWave 3D. In turn, Davis realized that the film would be fitting as a CG film, since all of the science fiction set pieces could be entirely modeled in 3D. Davis, alongside DNA co-founder Keith Alcorn, created a 40-second proof-of-concept demo film which depicted Johnny and his robot dog, Goddard, flying though an asteroid belt and greeting the viewers. Simultaneously, Davis and Alcorn worked to create a story bible outlining a potential television series. The demo short was shown off in 1995 at the SIGGRAPH CG convention, where it was entered into a competition for LightWave films. The demo quickly garnered notability in the computer animation industry, receiving frequent press coverage in magazines and winning two "Wavey" awards- one for Best Character Animation and another for Best in Show. Among people who caught wind of the film was Steve Oedekerk, the founder of O Entertainment, who saw a still shot of Johnny and Goddard in a CGI magazine. Oedekerk, a strong backer of computer animation, was impressed by the characters' designs – he stated in an interview that the image particularly stood out to him because it "seemed fun" compared to the mostly-photorealistic work being done with computer animation at the time. He cold-called Davis requesting to see a tape of the full short. After watching the demo, as well as seeing the show bible which Davis and Alcorn had developed, Oedekerk expressed interest in helping to pitch their concept to different networks. After teaming up with O Entertainment, DNA Productions began working on developing a full-length episode for a TV series, titled The Adventures of Johnny Quasar, writing an expanded version of the original Runaway Rocket story and tweaking aspects of Johnny's design to make him look more like a child. In late 1995, the idea was pitched to Nickelodeon, who expressed immediate interest in the idea. Albie Hecht, the then-president of Nick, was particularly impressed- coining him to be "half Bart Simpson and half Albert Einstein," he strongly praised Johnny's blended personality as an adventurous and intelligent character and one grounded in the reality of childhood, which, according to him, made him "the perfect Nick kid."5 Following positive reception, Nickelodeon commissioned for a 13-minute pilot episode to be created.4 After several years of going through the review process, the episode began production in late 1997, and was completed in 1998. The name "Johnny Quasar" was changed at the request of Nickelodeon, who did not want the character to be confused with similarly-named ones such as Jonny Quest and Captain Quazar, so Davis brainstormed other character names while walking his dog around the neighborhood block, eventually coming up with the final name, "Jimmy Neutron." After the pilot was completed, Nickelodeon executives, who were impressed by the pilot and still enthusiastic about the show's potential, raised the prospect of creating a theatrical film to accompany the TV series, much to the surprise of Davis and his team at DNA. During the initial pitch to Nickelodeon, Oedekerk had highlighted the idea that using computer animation would allow the same models and assets to be reused between both a film and a TV show, an idea which Nick held strong faith in.4 Davis further suggested that the feature film be created first, since the characters being modeled could be created at a higher quality than they would have with a TV budget. Although Nick was worried that it would be more difficult to attract a movie-going audience without the TV show to build an install base for the series, these concerns were answered with a series of short TV interstitials which would begin airing in order to build up hype for the upcoming film. With a budget of roughly $30 million, production of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was greenlit in Fall 1999, and work began on a script for the film. Production officially started in February 2000 under the direction of Davis. In order to speed up the pace of work for a feature film, DNA's staff count was considerably increased from 30 to around 150 employees, and the studio's workspace was also reformed in order to fit such a team of filmmakers. The film was completed in 24 months- roughly half that in which most other CGI films were completed. Writing The script for Jimmy Neutron was written by Davis and Oedekerk, as well as Rugrats show-writers David Weiss and J. David Stem. In creating the many ideas in Jimmy Neutron, Davis and Oedekerk thought back to their childhoods, trying to think about "what a kid would create if he had the ability to create any kind of gadget." The film was largely inspired by Davis' own love of science fiction which he had since childhood, drawing influence from various sources including The Thunderbirds and Ray Harryhausen's stop motion work. Oedekerk's 6-year-old daughter, Zoe, came up with the idea for "burp soda," which ultimately appeared in the movie as one of Jimmy's many inventions. According to Davis, the Ultralord-obsessed Sheen Esteves was inspired by Davis' own love of collecting. Sheen was initially intended to be Japanese, as he was named after the nickname of a Japanese employee who had worked for Davis, but the filmmaking team had trouble finding a good Japanese voice actor. Incidentally, they changed the character's nationality to Mexican after opening the role to a broader category and eventually settling on Mexican stand-up comic Jeff Garcia. Animation Jimmy Neutron was the first computer animated film to be created entirely using commercial animation programs rather than proprietary software, with most animation done using both Lightwave and project:messiah. Characters were first modeled in Lightwave, after which they were rigged and animated in Messiah. Texture painting was done via Adobe Photoshop, while compositing work was completed in Maya Fusion. In addition to serving as executive producer, Alcorn was the film's lead character designer, and created actively simplistic and cartoonish designs in order to avoid overcomplicating production. To animate crowd scenes, methods of simplification were used to make animation less time-consuming- characters that were farther from the camera less articulation, and animators would duplicate the same characters, offset them to different areas, and change their body parts to differentiate them. One particular scene shows a crowd of 6000 Yolkians, each of which uses one of 30 distinct animation loops. According to Davis, the character models were intentionally given a "sculpted, graphic look," both to avoid making them look overly realistic and to circumvent the prospect of having to deal with simulating cloth or hair. The over-the-top character designs, in turn, influenced the film world's aesthetic (e.g. cars were modeled to be able to fit the characters' stylistically large heads). Off-the-shelf shaders were favored over ones which created more photorealistic lighting in order to maintain a cartoonish appearance throughout. Soundtrack Official The movie soundtrack was released on November 20, 2001 after the movie was released, by Zomba Music, Jive Records and Nick Records. It includes covers of DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince's "Parents Just Don't Understand", Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" , and Kim Wilde's "Kids In America". Original score Additionally, a promotional CD containing the score by John Debney was released for Academy Award consideration. Release Theatrical release Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was released in theaters on December 21, 2001, by Paramount Pictures. Home media Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was released on VHS and DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment on July 2, 2002. It was re-released on DVD on June 22, 2011 and re-released again on DVD on April 25, 2017. The film has yet to be released on Blu-ray. Reception Critical response Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences. The film scored a 74% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics' consensus reads: "What Jimmy Neutron lacks in computer animation, it makes up for in charm and cleverness." According to Metacritic, the film also scored 65/100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Rita Kempley of Washington Post praised the film, saying that "this little charmer both celebrates and kids the corny conventions of family sitcoms". Nell Minow of Common Sense Media enjoyed the "stylish 3-D computer animation, good characters", giving the film 3 out of 5 stars. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave this film a B+, calling it "a lickety-split, madly packed, roller-coaster entertainment that might almost have been designed to make you scared of how much smarter your kids are than you". Paul Tatara of CNN.com called the film "the most delightfully original children's film of 2001". Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a 3/4 score, saying that "it doesn't have the little in-jokes that make Shrek and Monsters, Inc. fun for grown-ups. But adults who appreciate the art of animation may enjoy the look of the picture". Box office The film was financially successful, bringing in $13,833,228 on its opening weekend for an average of $4,407 from 3,139 theaters, and ended up with a total of $80,936,232 domestically, while also bringing in $22,056,304 overseas which made a total of $102,992,536 worldwide. It had a budget of roughly $30 million. It is one of only twelve feature films to be released in over 3,000 theaters and still improve on its box office performance in its second weekend, increasing 8.7% from $13,832,786 to $15,035,649. Awards Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was nominated for the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Shrek (2001), released by DreamWorks. It was the first release from Nickelodeon Movies to receive an Academy Award nomination. Cancelled sequel and possible reboot film plans In June 2002, it was reported that Kate Boutilier had made a deal to write a sequel to the film titled Jimmy Neutron 2: The Search for Carl. However, there was not any progress in the project and was cancelled.18 In 2016, director John A. Davis has stated that he has a story for a Jimmy Neutron reboot feature that he would like to make, but he is waiting for the "right situation" to make it. Spin-offs Due to the film's successful box office performance, a spin-off television series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was produced, running from July 2002 to November 2006. Another spin-off series titled Planet Sheen, focusing on Sheen Estevez, ran from October 2, 2010 to February 15, 2013. Genius, Sheenius or Inbetweenius An event that aired on May 19, 2007, Nickelodeon rehired Debi Derryberry, Jeffrey Garcia and Rob Paulsen to return for a special audio commentary version of the film that features their animated counterparts' silhouettes, spoofing Mystery Science Theater 3000. Film promotion These shorts were used to promote the film. They have all been released on the official Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius DVD release of the film. All of the inventions in each short were seen again at some point on the television series (except for the Pain-Transference helmet). Clips from similar versions of these shorts, along with clips from the unaired "Runaway Rocketboy" pilot, appeared in the teaser trailer for Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. The biggest difference between the clips seen in the trailer and the original shorts is that Jimmy wears the white and red striped shirt he wore in the pilot, rather than his trademark shirt. Shorts Literature * Marc Cerasini: Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, Novelization, ISBN 978-0613439350 Category:Film